October is National LGBTQ+ History Month and as September waned I decided to post historical notes to social media, alternating macro-history (the queer things we should all be learning in school) with micro-history (the ways in which, as I put it, being queer lights all my life’s lamps). Some of you might already know this but I’ve been sharing those daily tidbits on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Bluesky. (I’m iambrianwatson on each platform except for LinkedIn and there’s no need to follow me there. ;-) )
During my research, I uncovered some interesting facts. Did you know, for example, that Sappho was the first poet in history to incorporate the first-person perspective into poetry?
This past week in particular offered much in queer history to reflect on.
October 8
International Lesbian Day began in Australia and New Zealand and observances have slowly spread elsewhere. The origin of the event is unclear. Some say it began with a March for Lesbian Rights in New Zealand in the 1980s, other suggest the 1990s.
By the way, did you know that there are four flags signifying Lesbian pride?
The labrys, an axe-like weapon of the mythical Amazonian warriors, was the inspiration for the first flag. The inverted black triangle is the mark Nazis used for queer women in concentration camps.
This flag was designed by a gay man, Sean Campbell. Lesbians rightfully sought to design their own flag.
This design, nicknamed Sunset Pride, was designed by Emily Gwen in 2018.
The so-called lipstick Lesbian pride flag is associated with celebrating the Lesbian femme community.
And to celebrate the Lesbian butch community, there is also the so-called butch Lesbian pride flag.
October 9, 10
Because this newsletter is about my queer intersections with Japan, I want to touch on a Japanese holiday during October, too.
The 1964 Summer Olympics opened in Tōkyō on October 10. Tōkyō had originally been awarded the host city for the 1940 Summer Olympics, an event subsequently cancelled by the Second World War (after being re-awarded to Helsinki after Japan’s invasion of China in 1939).
October 10 became a National Holiday, Sports Day, in Japan in 1966. During my three years as an assistant English teacher in Japan, October 10 was marked with school-wide sports competitions. The first one I attended, on October 10, 1988, jokingly broke my gaydar as I realized that North American ideas of masculinity did not (thankfully) apply in Japan, as high school boys happily held hands in between heats.
Another assistant English teacher, one of the few that I was out to, asked whether a parade of Japanese eighteen-year-olds in t-shirts and short-shorts registered on my libido and I honestly admitted that no, I never found my students attractive.
In 2000, the Japanese government chose several fixed-date holidays and moved them such that they would fall on the closest Monday. This legislation is known as the Happy Monday System, and Sports Day is now observed on the second Monday of October.
October 10 is still a day of national sporting competitions for adults in Japan. During the ten months Hiro and I were apart in 1998, he joined a gay sumō club in Tōkyō, and also helped train sumō wrestlers in elementary schools. Some of his students have gone on to join professional stables, and we therefore try to remain abreast of sumō news.
October 11
National Coming Out Day commemorates the Second National March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian rights. Freshly out of the closet, I joined my college contingent at the march on October 11, 1987. If we do the math, that means that I have been out for thirty-six years. I’m still waiting for my toaster. And if you get that joke, you’re probably out for as long as me. I’ll share the toaster.
October 12
In October of 1998, I was living and working in Kirkland, Washington, anxiously waiting for Hiro to arrive on his first student visa. The news of the cruel attack on Matthew Shephard had broke a few days before he died in hospital on October 12 from the horrific wounds he sustained after being robbed, beaten, pistol-whipped, and tied to a split-rail fence in Wyoming in near-freezing weather. When a cyclist found him, thinking at first that Matthew was a scarecrow tied there, the police arrived, noting that Matthew’s face was completely covered in blood, except for where his tears had cleared tracks.
My return to the United States offered Hiro and I the chance to do something we couldn’t easily do in Japan: live together. This hate-crime was the first of many that made it clear, then and now, that safety for queer people is not a given here in the US.
October 14
Thom Higgins, an out gay Iowan, walked in to a TV studio on October 15, 1977, where a live broadcast featuring the darling of a surging backlash against queer people, Anita Bryant, was giving an interview. Thom hurled a whipped cream pie at her, catching her mid-vitriol. Bryant attempted a joke—at least it was a fruit pie—but the boycott of Florida orange juice, for which Bryant had long been a spokeswoman, isolated her even further. Her Save The Children continues to inspire the anti-drag and anti-trans hate we, if we’re lucky, live through today, but that hatred is voiced by people pandering to an ever-shrinking population of bigots.
The enemies of equal rights are loud, but just as Thom proved to Bryant, we won’t allow them to win.
October 15
Today is National Latiné HIV-AIDS Awareness Day, designed to call attention to the ongoing impact of HIV-AIDS on Latiné communities in the United States. October 15 is the last day of National Hispanic American Heritage Month as well. National Black HIV-AIDS Awareness Day is on February 7, during Black History Month. World HIV-AIDS Awareness Day is on December 1.
In the next issue…
Next week will be an issue for paid subscribers, and will feature information on etiquette for travelers to Japan.